[Python-Dev] os.access on Windows (original) (raw)

Brian Curtin brian.curtin at gmail.com
Fri May 20 17:21:02 CEST 2011

On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 03:38, Tim Golden <Tim.Golden at cbsoutdoor.co.uk>wrote:

There's a thread on python-list at the moment:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2011-May/1272505.html which is discussing the validity of os.access results on Windows. Now we've been here before: I raised issue2528 for a previous enquiry some years ago and proffered a patch which uses the AccessCheck API to perform the equivalent check, but didn't follow through. Someone on the new thread is suggesting -- validly -- that the docs should highlight the limitations of this call on Windows. But the docs for that call are already fairly involved: http://docs.python.org/library/os.html#os.access We seem to have a few options in increasing order of difficulty: * Do nothing - inform the occasional enquirer of the situation and leave it at that. * Update the docs to add something which describes what the function actually does on the Windows platform. (Whether or not we change any code).

I think we should tread lightly in the documentation area. We already have two note boxes, and adding a third probably scares everyone away. Maybe there should be a bullet list of considerations to be made when using os.access?

I haven't reviewed the patch other than 1 minute scan, but I'll put this on my radar and try to get you a review. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/attachments/20110520/98df05ce/attachment.html>

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